Wednesday, October 9, 1985 es Newsstand Price 40° Vol. 48, No. 37 UNE « Action demand at CLC women’s meet — page 7 — Soviet minister offers arms cuts in ‘Star Peace’ proposal to UN — page 9 Cities press govt to fund jobs plan phi enamine Ext teen, sis, Apartheid continues to grow. Just days from now, when James Motlatsi, the president of South Africa’s _ €mbattled national Union of Mineworkers -Teturns to South Africa from his current tour of Canada, he will be walking into the ye of the storm. __ Five weeks ago, when the NUM launched its historic strike at eight gold mines and three coal mines in South Africa, three mining companies, backed by the apartheid regime, responded with the repression that has become synonym- OUs with South Africa. _“The mining companies fortified the _ Mines, erecting electric fences and block- Ing off all but one entrance,” said NUM _ information officer Manoko Nchwe. “The Strike was brutally put down and miners _ Were forced to go underground at gun- Point. Tear gas was thrown into the Workers’ hostels and when people tried to Tun away, the dogs were unleashed against them,” she said. a Forced to suspend the strike in the face 3 i . i i i i i rt that even JAMES NOKO NCHWE. . .South African National Union of Mineworkers representatives repo at _ legal aes ces by Pretoria regime. But, they're informing Canadian workers during national tour, the opposition to of repression, the NUM has taken its case to the courts — for the NUM strike was a legal one, even under the restrictive rules of the apartheid regime. But whatever the court’s decision — after several delays, the case is to be heard Oct. 14 — the miners will once again launch their strike. “If we are upheld, that is well and good,” said Nchwe. “But if not, our members are committed and determined. “One way or another, we will resume the strike.” : : Motlatsi, president of the 230,000- member NUM anda working gold miner, and Nchwe, the union’s full-time informa- tion officer, were in this province this week as part of a three-week, national tour organized by the Canadian Labor Con- gress. They were to visit Trail and Kim- berly before going on to Sudbury, - Toronto and Ottawa. The impending action of the miners will have a critical role to play in the escalating -mining industry is the bastion of the hated struggle against the apartheid regime. The job reservation system and the main. industry in which black workers are forced to live in concentration camp conditions. “It is the working class which has the potential to liberate South Africa,” Nchwe told reporters in Vancouver Monday. Asa result, the trade unions are coming to occupy a more and more decisive place and unity talks among various unions and trade union centres are “proceeding pro- gressively and positively,” she said. The events of the last several months have also brought great prestige to the popular movements in South Africa, including the African National Congress | and the United Democratic Front, she said. “Everybody is conscious, everybody wants to do something to gain the vote or gain a right that belongs to him.” Roads, sewers and sidewalks could be one ticket out of Canada’s economic depression and staggering unemployment. So argue the mayors and aldermen of Canada’s municipalities. Through their national body, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, elected civic officials are cal- ling for massive infusions of senior govern- ment capital into desperately needed repairs to urban Canada’s basic amenities. In unanimously adopting that line at a recent FCM convention, the city govern- ment representatives agreed that an esti- mated $12 billion spent over five years would not only bring Canada’s municipal infrastructure back up to scratch, but would create employment as well — approximately 285,000 “person years” or 45,000 to 60,000 jobs per year. Moreover, the consulting firm hired to research an FCM report, entitled The Macroeconomic Impact of Accelerated Spending on Municipal Infrastructure, found that the economic spinoff in increased income and subsequent spending would more than compensate the country for the dollars spent, in economic activity and increased government revenues. The report has been hailed by public sec- tor unions, who see in it a sound financial plan for undoing at least some of the devas- tation of the economic recession and government’s financial cutbacks. It has also received the enthusiastic backing of the Communist Party and the New Democrats in British Columbia. Not surprisingly, the proposals have already received a thumbs-down from reactionary quarters — most notably Bill Ritchie, the Socred government’s Minister of Municipal Affairs who flatly rejected the plan at the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention last month. The UBCM had also enthusiastically adopted the report’s findings, which were incorporated into the organization’s own report, along with a recommendation that $1 billion be spent on upgrading the provin- ce’s municipal infrastructure. According to UBCM estimates, a recommended 10-year upgrading program would require an annual increase in public works budgets of 28 per cent, meaning a several-per cent hike to municipal budgets yearly. But under the Socreds, provincial fund- ing of municipalities has declined — often severely — during the cutbacks years of its “restraint” program. Ritchie told the UBCM convention there was “no way” his government would ask for federal contributions to municipal renewal “‘when its (the federal govern- ment’s) deficit is so high.” The minister see PUBLIC page 3 S&S Sa Sas sash i NMR TINT TTT ae =